Cellular coverage may greatly improve on Charter Road this coming year with the expected installation of a cellular communication tower.
The school district is proposing to lease a 50-by-50-foot space behind the district’s Administration Building at 23 Charter Road to TowerCo, one of the largest privately-owned companies in the United States that builds, owns, and maintains wireless communication infrastructure.
The proposal for construction of a 100-foot pole tower is a response to ongoing, subpar cellular service that has impeded the district’s ability to communicate with families, especially during weather events such as last September’s microburst storm.
A representative from TowerCo reviewed the plan at the August 22 school committee meeting.
TowerCo would assume all construction and maintenance costs. The district would also receive a small amount of revenue as a cost-share, as service providers rent space on the tower.
If approved by the School Committee, the tower would improve cellular service at the high school and junior high school, the Parker Damon campus, the district’s central offices, and possibly the Boardwalk Campus.
The school committee is currently accepting public comment prior to voting on the TowerCo lease at a future meeting.
School Committee votes to establish an Elementary Budget Task Force
The Acton-Boxborough School Committee voted unanimously at its August 22 meeting to establish a multistakeholder Elementary Budget Task Force.
The task force is charged with recommending cost-saving structural changes that can be deployed at the district’s elementary schools and that reflect consideration of the needs of students and staff and efficient use of our community’s resources.
The idea of a task force was proposed in January 2024 during School Committee budget deliberations. At that time, the committee agreed to engage stakeholders in a public process of identifying and evaluating costs associated with open enrollment and other structural elements of the budget.
The 27-member task force will be supported by the superintendent, deputy superintendent and director of finance and operations, and consist of nine individuals identified as essential to the work, including three school committee members, one member from the Acton Finance Committee, one member from the Boxborough Finance Committee, an Acton-Boxborough Special Education Advisory Council board member, an executive board member of the Acton-Boxborough Educators Association, a school principal, and a community member at large.
Nine additional members will be selected from an applicant pool of interested stakeholders and shall include a school- or district-based administrator, two teachers, one non-teaching staff, two parents, one student, and two community members at-large. After these selections are finalized, a group of nine members including three teachers, two staff (non-teachers) members, three parents and one student will be selected randomly using technology and, subsequently, invited to serve.
The work of the task force will be guided by budget, enrollment, staffing and focus-group data provided by New Solutions K12, a consultant engaged by the district with expertise in strategic budgeting and community engagement.
Five meetings are tentatively planned beginning October 2024. The task force is expected to present its final recommendations to the school committee on December 19.
Finance News
Sheri Matthews, the Acton-Boxborough district’s director of Finance and Operations, reported an anticipated end-of-year turnback for the fiscal year 2023-24 of $796,151 and a preliminary balance in the district’s Excess and Deficiency account of $2,122,750. Matthews also provided updates on revolving accounts, grants and the Acton Health Insurance Trust which has reported a positive account balance as of July 15 and is now expected to maintain a balance sufficient to cover future runout claims.
District goals for 2024-25 prioritize social and emotional development, academic achievement, and community engagement.
Superintendent of Schools Peter Light presented the 2024-25 District and Superintendent Goals for the school committee’s consideration and feedback at their August 22 business meeting. This is the fourth year of a multi year plan.
Goal #1: Social and emotional learning
Focus areas under the goal of social and emotional learning include integration of an evidence-based bullying prevention curriculum with the district’s chosen social-emotional curriculum, expansion of capacity for restorative practices, use of data to measure the impact of advisory programs at the junior high and high schools, implementation of a K-6 social-emotional screening tool to support identification of at-risk students and guide intervention, and enactment of professional learning for K-6 elementary educators on the district’s social-emotional learning framework, CASEL.
Reducing chronic absenteeism is a major focus area for 2024-25. Light shared 2023 data indicating that about eleven percent of A-B students met the criterion for chronic absenteeism by missing eighteen or more days of school. Almost forty percent of A-B students missed ten or more days of school. Both data sets represent a substantial increase from pre-pandemic absentee rates.
“As we await 2024 data from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, we are looking at 2023 disaggregated data to determine who is being impacted the most and where our focus should be,” Light said. In response to school committee member Kaja’s concerns about root causes of the increasing rates of chronic absenteeism post-pandemic, Light commented: “That’s a great question. This is not something schools can fix without engaging students, families, educators and school leaders. We are forming a steering committee to look for best practices and reach out to students and families to more deeply understand root causes.”
Goal #2: Increasing access, opportunities and outcomes in literacy and mathematics
Priority areas for 2024-25 under the goal of increasing access, opportunities and outcomes in literacy and mathematics include development of a framework and plan for implementing a data-driven, multi-tiered system of student support at R.J. Grey Junior High School, and data collection to monitor progress and inform program adjustments to high school course levels.
The district will continue its ongoing work to increase the number of elementary students on a pathway to proficiency in literacy and mathematics.
Light emphasized that student performance in Acton-Boxborough aligns with national trends, with fewer third graders scoring at the proficient level on state assessments in English language arts, and fewer eighth graders scoring at the proficient level on state assessments in mathematics, compared to pre-pandemic numbers. Persistent achievement gaps were noted for high needs student populations.
Third grade proficiency in literacy and eighth grade proficiency in mathematics are important milestones and key indicators of high school graduation.
“We have work to do in this area. This really speaks to the need to pay attention to data and to the impact on specific student demographics,” Light said. “Some of what you see in the academic performance data coincides with where we see high levels of chronic absenteeism, and this speaks to the idea that doing the work around behavioral health supports student learning. The idea that social-emotional learning is unrelated to academics is a false statement. Social-emotional learning is the academic work of this district as is literacy, math and everything else.”
Goal #3: Engaging stakeholders in strategic visioning
Focus areas for 2024-25 under the goal of engaging stakeholders in strategic visioning include three targeted opportunities for community members to get involved in areas critical to improving student access and outcomes and to the long-term sustainability of the district. These include: 1) the Elementary Budget Task Force, 2) a review of multilingual programming across the district and development of a long-term plan to expand programming and opportunities for multilingual learners, and 3) participation in developing a Vision of a Graduate, a central component of an upcoming, scheduled reaccreditation process at Acton-Boxborough Regional High School that requires families, students, educators and local business to collectively define the values, characteristics and transferable skills necessary for future student success.
The School Committee will vote on the 2024-25 district and superintendent goals at their September 5 business meeting.
Diane Baum is the Acton Exchange beat reporter for the School Committee.